Please note that I consistently check and update links on this page, but it
is virtually impossible to keep them all current.
If you find a broken link, please let me know. You can reach me at
esass@csbsju.edu.

1635 - The first
Latin Grammar School
(Boston Latin
School) is established. Latin Grammar
Schools are designed for sons of certain social classes who are
destined for leadership positions in church, state, or the courts.

1635 - The first "free school" in Virginia opens. However,
education in the Southern
colonies is more typically provided at home by parents or tutors.

1636 - Harvard College,
the first higher education institution in what is now the United States, is established
in Newtowne (now
Cambridge), Massachusetts.

1640 - Henry Dunster becomes President of Harvard College.
He
teaches all the courses himself!

1642 - The
Massachusetts Bay School Law is passed. It requires that parents
ensure their children know the principles of religion and the capital
laws of the commonwealth.

1647 - The Massachusetts Law of 1647, also known as the Old Deluder Satan
Act, is passed. It decrees that every town of at least 50 families hire
a schoolmaster who would teach the town's children to read and write
and that all towns of at least 100 families should have a Latin grammar
school master who will prepare students to attend Harvard College.

1690
- John Locke
publishes his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which
conveys his belief that the human mind is a tabula rasa,
or blank slate, at birth and knowledge is derived through experience,
rather than innate ideas as was believed by many at that time. Locke's
views concerning the mind and learning greatly influence American
education.

1690 - The first
New England
Primer is printed in Boston. It becomes the most widely-used
schoolbook in New England.

1692 - The Plymouth Colony merges with the Massachusetts Bay
Colony. About 50 miles to the north, in Salem, the infamous
Salem
Witchcraft Trials take place.

1693 - John Locke's
Some Thoughts Concerning Education is published, describing his
views on educating upper class boys to be moral, rationally-thinking,
and reflective "young gentlemen." His ideas regarding educating the
masses are conveyed in On Working Schools, published in 1697, which focused on the
importance of developing a work ethic.

1710 -
Christopher Dock, a Mennonite and one of Pennsylvania's most famous
educators, arrives from Germany and later opens a school in Montgomery
County, PA. Dock's book, Schul-Ordnung (meaning school
management), published in 1770, is the first book about teaching
printed in colonial America. Typical of those in the middle colonies,
schools in Pennsylvania are established not only by the Mennonites, but
by the Quakers and other religious groups as well.

1734 – Christian
von Wolff describes the human mind as consisting of powers or
faculties. Called Faculty Psychology, this doctrine holds that the
mind can best be developed through "mental discipline" or tedious drill
and repetition of basic skills and the eventual study of abstract
subjects such as classical philosophy, literature, and languages.
This viewpoint greatly influences American education throughout the
19th Century and beyond.

1743 - Benjamin
Franklin forms the American Philosophical Society, which helps
bring ideas of the
European Enlightenment, including those of John Locke, to colonial
America. Emphasizing secularism, science, and human reason, these ideas
clash with the religious dogma of the day, but greatly influence the
thinking of prominent colonists, including Franklin and Thomas
Jefferson.

1751 - Benjamin Franklin helps to establish the first
"English Academy" in Philadelphia with a curriculum that is both
classical and modern, including such courses as history, geography,
navigation, surveying, and modern as well as classical languages. The
academy ultimately becomes the University of
Pennsylvania.

1766 - The Moravians, a
protestant denomination from central Europe, establish the village of
Salem in North Carolina. Six years later (1772), they found a school for
girls, which later becomes
Salem College, a liberal arts college for women with a current enrollment of
approximately 1100.

1783 - The
Revolutionary War
officially ends with the signing of the
Treaty of Paris, which recognizes U.S.
independence and possession of all land east of the Mississippi except
the Spanish colony of Florida

1784 - The
Ordinance
of 1784 divides the Western territories (north of the Ohio River
and east of the Mississippi) into ten separate territories that would
eventually become states and have the same rights as the thirteen
original states.

1785 - The
Land
Ordinance of 1785 specifies that the western territories are to be
divided into townships made up of 640-acre sections, one of which was
to be set aside
"for the maintenance of public schools."
1787 -
The Constitutional Convention assembles in Philadelphia. Later that
year, the constitution is endorsed by the Confederation Congress (the
body that governed from 1781 until the ratification of the U.S.
Constitution) and sent to state legislatures for ratification. The
document does not include the words education or school.

1787 - The
Northwest Ordinance is enacted by the Confederation Congress. It
provides a plan for western expansion and bans slavery in new states.
Specifically recognizing the importance of education, Act 3 of the
document begins, "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to
good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of
education shall forever be encouraged." Perhaps of more of practical
importance, it stipulates that a section of land in every township of
each new state be reserved for the support of education.

1787 - The
Young Ladies
Academy opens in Philadelphia and becomes the first academy for girls in
America.

1791 - The Bill of
Rights is passed by the first Congress of the new United
States. No mention is made of education in any of the amendments.
However, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution states that powers not
delegated to the federal government "are reserved to the States,
respectively, or to the people." Thus, education becomes a function of
the state rather than the federal government. 1801 - James
Pillans invents the
modern blackboard.

1812-1815 - The War of 1812,
sometimes called the "Second War of Independence," occurs for multiple
reasons, including U.S. desires for territorial expansion and British
harassment of U.S. merchant ships. The war begins with an
unsuccessful invasion of Canada by U.S. forces. Though the
Treaty of Ghent, signed
on December 24, 1814, supposedly ends the war, the final battle
actually takes place January 8, 1815 with
U.S. forces
defeating the British at New Orleans.

1827 - The state of
Massachusetts passes a law requiring towns of more than 500
families to have a public high school open to all students.

1829 - The
New England
Asylum for the Blind, now the Perkins School for the Blind, opens
in Massachusetts, becoming the first school in the U.S. for children
with visual disabilities.

1836 - The first of
William Holmes McGuffey's readers is published. Their secular tone
sets them apart from the Puritan texts of the day. The McGuffey Readers,
as they came to be known, are among the most influential textbooks of
the 19th Century.

1837 - Horace Mann becomes Secretary of the newly formed Massachusetts
State Board of Education. A visionary educator and proponent of public
(or "free") schools, Mann works tirelessly for increased funding of
public schools and better training for teachers. As Editor of the
Common School Journal, his belief in the importance of free,
universal public education gains a national audience. He resigns his
position as Secretary in 1848 to take the Congressional seat vacated by
the death of John Quincy Adams and later becomes the first president of
Antioch
College.

1837 - The
African Institute (later called the Institute for Colored Youth) opens in
Cheyney, Pennsylvania. Now called
Cheyney University, it the oldest institution of higher learning for African
Americans.

1839 - The first state funded school
specifically for teacher education (then known as "normal" schools)
opens in Lexington, Massachusetts.

1852 - Massachusetts
enacts the
first mandatory attendance law. By 1885, 16 states have
compulsory-attendance laws, but most of those laws are sporadically
enforced at best. All states have them by 1918.

1861 - The
U.S. Civil War begins when South Carolina
secedes from the union and along with 10 other states forms the
Confederate States of American. The shooting begins when Fort Sumter is
attacked on April 12. With the exception of the First Morrill act of
1862, educational progress is essentially put on hold until the war's
end.

1862 -
The First Morrill
Act, also known as the
"Land Grant Act"
becomes law. It donates public lands to states, the sale
of which will be used for the "endowment, support, and maintenance of
at least one college where the leading object shall be, without
excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military
tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to
agriculture and the mechanic arts, in order to promote the liberal and
practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits
and professions in life." Many prominent state universities can trace
their roots to this forward-thinking legislation.

1865 - The Civil War ends with Lee's surrender at
Appomattox Courthouse. Much of the south, including its educational
institutions, is left in disarray. Many schools are closed. Even before
the war, public education in the south was far behind that in the
north. The physical devastation left by the war as well as the social
upheaval and poverty that follow exacerbate this situation.

1866 - The
14th Amendment is
passed by Congress as one of the reconstruction amendments.
If ratified by three-fourths of the states, it would give all persons born or
naturalized in the United States citizenship and equal protection under the law.

1867 - After hearing of the desperate situation facing schools in the south, George Peabody
funds the two-million-dollar Peabody Education Fund to aid public
education in southern states.

1867 - Howard
University is established in Washington D.C. to provide education for
African American youth "in the liberal arts and sciences.” Early financial
support is provided by the
Freedmen's Bureau.

1873 - The
Panic of 1873 causes bank foreclosures, business failures, and job
loss. The economic depression that follows results in reduced revenues
for education. Southern schools are hit particularly hard, making a bad
situation even worse.

1889 -
Jane Addams and her college friend
Ellen Gates Starr
found Hull House
in a Chicago, Illinois neighborhood of recent European immigrants. It is the
first settlement house in the U.S. Included among its many services are a
kindergarten and a night school for adults.
Hull House continues
to this day to offer
educational services to children and families.

1896 - Homer Plessy, a
30-year-old African American, challenges the state of Louisiana's
"Separate Car Act," arguing that requiring Blacks to ride in separate
railroad cars violates the 13th and 14th Amendments. The U.S.
Supreme Court upholds the Louisiana law stating in the majority opinion
that the intent of the 14th Amendment
"had not been
intended to abolish distinctions based on color." Thus, the Supreme
Court ruling in the case of
Plessy v. Ferguson makes
"separate but equal" policies legal. It becomes a legal precedent
used to justify many other segregation laws, including "separate but
equal" education.

1901 - Joliet
Junior College, in Joliet, Illinois, opens. It is the first public community college in the U.S.

1903 -
Ivan Pavlov reads his paper, The Experimental Psychology and
Psychopathology of Animals, at the 14th International Medical Congress in
Madrid, explaining his concept of the conditioned reflex, an important component
of
classical conditioning.

1911 - The
first Montessori school in the U.S. opens in Tarrytown, New York.
Two years later (1913), Maria Montessori visits the U.S., and Alexander
Graham Bell and his wife Mabel found the Montessori Educational
Association at their Washington, DC, home
1913 -
Edward Lee Thorndike's book, Educational Psychology: The
Psychology of Learning, is published. It describes his theory that
human learning involves habit formation, or connections between stimuli
(or situations as Thorndike preferred to call them) and responses
(Connectionism). He
believes that such connections are strengthened by repetition ("Law of
Exercise") and achieving satisfying consequences ("Law of Effect").
These ideas, which contradict traditional
faculty psychology and mental discipline, come to dominate American
educational psychology for much of the Twentieth Century and greatly
influence American educational practice.

1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed on 28 June. It officially ends
the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. However, the terms of
the treaty are tragically
flawed, and instead of bringing lasting peace, it
plants
the seeds for World War II, which begins twenty
years later.

1924 - Max Wertheimer describes the
principles of
Gestalt Theory to the Kant Society in Berlin.
Gestalt Theory, with its emphasis on learning through insight and
grasping the whole concept, becomes important later in the 20th Century
in the development of cognitive views of learning and teaching.

1926 - The
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is first administered. It is based
on the Army
Alpha test.
1929 - Jean Piaget's
The Child's Conception of the World is published. His theory of
cognitive development becomes an important influence in American
developmental psychology and education.

1929 - The
Great Depression begins with the
stock market crash
in October. The U.S. economy is devastated. Public education funding
suffers greatly, resulting in school closings, teacher layoffs, and
lower salaries.

1935 - Congress authorizes the
Works Progress Administration. Its purpose is to put the unemployed
to work on public projects, including the construction of hundreds of
school buildings.

1938 - After earlier
failed attempts to regulate child labor, the
Fair Labor
Standards Act is signed in to law by president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Among
its many provisions (which include setting a minimum wage of 25 cents per
hour!), the act sets a minimum age for working in non-agricultural jobs and
limits the number of hours and types of employment for older children.

1939 - The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (first called
the Wechsler- Bellevue Intelligence Scale) is developed by
David
Wechsler. It introduces the concept of the "deviation
IQ," which calculates IQ scores based on how far subjects' scores differ (or
deviate) from the average (mean) score of others who are the same age, rather
than calculating them with the
ratio (MA/CA
multiplied by 100) system. Wechsler intelligence tests,
particularly the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, are still widely used in U.S.
schools to help identify students needing special education.

1941 - The U.S. enters
World War II after
the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
on December 7. During the next four years, much of the country's
resources go to the war effort. Education is put on the back burner as
many young men quit school to enlist; schools are faced with personnel
problems as
teachers and other employees enlist, are drafted, or leave to work in
defense plants; school construction is put on hold.

1944
- The
G.I. Bil
of Rightsl officially known as the
Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, is signed by FDR on June 22.
Some 7.8 million World War II veterans take advantage of the
GI Bill during the seven years benefits are offered. More than
two-million attend colleges or universities, nearly doubling the
college population. About 238,000
become teachers. Because the law provides the same opportunity to
every veteran, regardless of background, the long-standing tradition
that a college education was only for the wealthy is broken.

1946 - Recognizing "the need for a permanent legislative
basis for a school lunch program," the 79th
Congress approves the
National School Lunch Act.

1947 - In the case of
Everson v. Board of Education,the U.S. Supreme
Court rules by a 5-4 vote that a New Jersey law which allowed
reimbursements of transportation costs to parents of children who rode
public transportation to school, even if their children attended
Catholic schools, did NOT violate the Establishment Clause of
the First Amendment.

1948 - In the case of
McCollum v. Board of
Education, the Supreme Court rules that schools cannot allow "released
time" during the school day which allows students to participate in
religious education in their public school classrooms.

1955 -
Rosa Parks, a
Montgomery, Alabama seamstress, refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a
Caucasian passenger and is subsequently arrested and fined. The
Montgomery bus boycott
follows, giving impetus to the
Civil Rights Movement. A year later, in the case of
Browder v. Gale, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregated seating on
buses is unconstitutional.

1957 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth. Occurring in the
midst of the Cold War, it represents both a potential threat to
American national security as well as a blow to national pride.

1958
- At least partially because of Sputnik, science and
science education become important concerns in the U.S., resulting
in the passage of the
National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
which authorizes increased funding for scientific research as well as science,
mathematics, and foreign language
education.

1960
-First grader Ruby Bridges is the first African American to attend William Frantz
Elementary School in New Orleans. She becomes a class of one as parents
remove all Caucasian students from the school.

1962
- In the case of
Engel v. Vitale,the U. S. Supreme Court
rules that the state of New York's Regents prayer violates the
First Amendment. The ruling specifies that
"state officials may not compose an official state prayer and
require that it be recited in the public schools of the State at the
beginning of each school day. . . "

1964 - The Civil Rights Act becomes law. It prohibits discrimination based on
race, color, sex, religion or national origin.

1965 - The
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is passed on April 9.
Part of Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," it provides federal funds to
help low-income students, which results in the initiation of
educational programs such as Title I and bilingual education.

1965 - Project Head Start, a preschool education program for children from
low-income families, begins as an eight-week summer program. Part of
the
"War on Poverty," the program continues to this day as the
longest-running anti-poverty program in the U.S.

1966 - Public Law 358, the
Veterans
Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966, provides not only educational
benefits, but also home and farm loans as well as employment counseling
and placement services for Vietnam veterans. More than
385,000 troops, serve in Vietnam during 1966. From 1965-1975, more
than nine million American military personnel are on active military
duty, about 3.4 million of whom serve in Southeast Asia.

1968 - The "Monkey Trial" revisited! In the case of
Epperson et al. v. Arkansas, the U.S. supreme Court finds the state
of Arkansas' law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in a public
school or university unconstitutional.

1968 -
McCarver
Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington becomes the nation's first
magnet school.1969 -
Herbert R. Kohl's book, The Open Classroom, helps to
promote open
education, an approach emphasizing student-centered classrooms and
active, holistic learning. The conservative back-to-the-basics movement
of the
1970s
begins at least partially as a backlash against open education. .

1969
- On
April 30th, the number of U.S. military personnel in Vietnam stands
at 543,482, the most at any time during the war. College enrollments
swell as many young men seek student deferments from the draft;
anti-war
protests become commonplace on college campuses, and
grade inflation begins as professors realize that low grades may
change male students' draft status.

1969 -
ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the first
"packet-switching" network and precursor of the internet, is created by the U.S.
Defense Department. Its
first message is sent October 29, at about 10:30 P.M. For alternate
perspectives on the origins of the internet, see
So, who really invented the internet?

1972 - The
Indian
Education Act becomes law and establishes "a
comprehensive approach to meeting the unique needs of American Indian and Alaska
Native students"

1972 - The case of
Mills v. the Board of
Education of Washington, D.C. extends the PARC v. Pennsylvania
ruling to other students with disabilities and requires the provision
of "adequate alternative educational services suited to the child's
needs, which may include special education . . ." Other similar cases
follow.

1972 - Title IX of
the Education Amendments of 1972 becomes law. Though many
people associate this law only with girl's and women's participation in
sports, Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in all aspects
of education.

1973 - U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends on January 27.
More than 58,000
U.S. service personnel are killed in action during the war. The
fighting continues until April 30, 1975 when South Vietnam surrenders
to the communist North Vietnamese forces.

1973 - The
Rehabilitation Act becomes law.
Section 504 of this act guarantees civil rights for people with disabilities
in the context of federally funded institutions and requires accommodations in
schools including participation in programs and activities as well as access to
buildings. Today, "504 Plans"
are used to provide accommodations for students with disabilities who do not
qualify for special education or an IEP.

1975
- The Education of All
Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) becomes federal law. It
requires that a free, appropriate public education, suited to the
student's individual needs, and offered in the least restrictive
setting be provided for all "handicapped" children. States are given
until 1978 (later extended to 1981) to fully implement the law.

|1980 -
The Refugee Act of 1980 is signed into law by
President Jimmy
Carter on March 18th. Building on the Immigration Act of 1965, it reforms
immigration law to admit refugees for humanitarian reasons and results
in the resettlement of more than three-million refugees in the United
States including many children who bring special needs and issues to their
classrooms.

1980 - Ronald
Reagan is elected president, ushering in a new conservative
era, not only in foreign and economic policy, but in
education as well. However, he never carries out his pledge to
reduce the federal role in education by eliminating the
Department of
Education, which had become a Cabinet level agency that same year under the
Carter administration.. 1981 - John Holt's book, Teach Your Own: A
Hopeful Path for Education,adds momentum to the
homeschooling movement.

1982 - Madeline C.
Hunter's book,
Mastery Teaching, is published. Her
teaching model becomes widely used as teachers
throughout the country attend her workshops and become "Hunterized."

1982 - In the case of
Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a 5-4 decision that Texas law
denying access to public education for undocumented school-age children violates
the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling also found that
school districts cannot
charge tuition fees for the education of these children.

1986 - Christa
McAuliffe is chosen by NASA from
among more than 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher-astronaut,
but her mission ends tragically as the
Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after its launch,
killing McAuliffe and the other six members of the
crew.

1990- The Immigration and Nationality Act of
1990, the first comprehensive reform since 1965, is enacted on 29 November
and increases annual immigration to 700,000 adding to the diversity of our
nation and its schools. Specific aspects of the law provide for family-sponsored
visas; employment-based visas for priority workers, skilled
workers, and "advanced professionals"; and 55,000 diversity visas
"allocated
to natives of a country that has sent fewer than 50,000 immigrants to the United
States over the previous five years."1991 - Minnesota passes the first
"charter school" law.

1993 -
Jacqueline
and Martin Brooks' In Search of Understanding: The Case for
Constructivist Classrooms is published. It is one many books and
articles describing
constructivism, a view that learning best occurs through active
construction of knowledge rather than its passive reception.
Constructivist learning theory, with roots such as the work of
Dewey, Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky, becomes extremely popular in the
1990s.

1993 - The
Massachusetts Education Reform Act requires a common curriculum and
statewide tests (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System). As has
often been the case, other states follow Massachusetts' lead and
implement similar, high-stakes testing programs.

1994 - As a backlash to illegal immigration, California voters
pass
Proposition 187,
denying benefits, including public education, to undocumented aliens in
California. It is challenged by the ACLU and other groups and
eventually
overturned.

1996 - President Bill Clinton signs the
Illegal Immigration Reform
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 into law on September 30th.. It
prohibits states from offering higher education benefit based on residency
within a state (in-state tuition) to undocumented immigrants unless the benefit
is available to any U.S. citizen or national. This law conflicts, however, with
practices and laws in several U.S. states.

1997 -
New
York follows Georgia's lead and passes legislation that will phase in
voluntary pre-kindergarten classes over a four-year period. However, preschool
funding is a casualty of September 11, 2001 as New York struggles to recover. As
of 2008, about 39% of the state's four year olds, mostly from low-income
families, are enrolled. 1998 - California voters pass
Proposition 227, requiring that all public school instruction be in
English. This time the law withstands legal challenges.

2001 - Nineteen
al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four commercial jet airliners on the
morning of September 11. They crash two into the
twin towers of the
World Trade
Center and another into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashes in a rural area
of Pennsylvania as passengers try to retake it from the hijackers. A total of
2976 victims as well as the 19 terrorists are killed. The attacks have a
devastating effect on the both U.S. and world stock markets, result in the
passage of the Patriot
Act, formation of the Department of Homeland Security,
provide the impetus for two wars, and take a lasting toll on Americans' sense of
safety and well-being.
2001 - The controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is approved by Congress and signed
into law by
President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. The law, which
reauthorizes the ESEA of 1965 and replaces the Bilingual Education Act of 1968,
mandates high-stakes student testing, holds schools accountable for student
achievement levels, and provides penalties for schools that do not make
adequate yearly progress toward meeting the goals of NCLB.

2003 - The Higher Education Act is again
amended
and reauthorized, expanding access to higher education for low and
middle income students, providing additional funds for graduate
studies, and increasing accountability.

2004 -
H.R. 1350, The
Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEA 2004),
reauthorizes and modifies IDEA. Changes, which take effect on July 1,
2005, include modifications in the IEP process and
procedural safeguards, increased authority for school personnel in
special education placement decisions, and alignment of IDEA with the No Child Left Behind Act.
The 2004 reauthorization also requires school districts to use the Response to Intervention
(RTI) approach as a means for the early identification of students at risk
for specific learning disabilities. RTI provides a three-tiered model for
screening, monitoring, and providing increasing degrees of intervention using
“research-based instruction" with the overall goal of reducing the need for
special education services

2007 - Both the House and Senate pass the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor-HHS-
Education appropriation
bill which includes reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.
However,
the bill is
vetoed by President Bush
because it exceeds his budget request. Attempts to override the veto fall short.

2008 -
Barack Obama
defeats John McCain and is
elected the 44th President of the United States. Substantial
changes in the No Child Left Behind Act
are eventually expected, but with two ongoing wars as well as the current preoccupation with our nation's
economic problems, reauthorization of NCLB is unlikely to happen any time soon.

2009 - The
American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 provides more than 90-billion
dollars for education, nearly half of which goes to local school districts to
prevent layoffs and for school modernization and repair. It includes the
Race to
the Top initiative, a 4.35-billion-dollar program designed to induce reform
in K-12 education. For more information on
the impact of the Recovery Act on education, go to
ED.gov.

2009 - Quest to Learn (Q2L), the
first school to teach primarily through game-based learning, opens in September
in New York City with a class of sixth graders There are plans to add a grade
each year until the school serves students in grades six through twelve.

2011 - In spite of workers' protests and Democratic legislators leaving
the state to delay the vote, the
Wisconsin legislature passes a bill removing most collective-bargaining
rights from many public employees, including teachers.
Governor Scott
Walker signs the bill into law on March 11. After legal challenges are
exhausted, it is finally implemented in June. A similar measure passes in Ohio
but is later
repealed through a state referendum.

2012 - On July 6,
Washington and Wisconsin become the two most recent states to be granted waivers
from some requirements of the federal No Child left Behind law, bringing the
total number of states granted waivers to 26. Several more states have
submitted waiver applications and are waiting for approval.

2013 - In yet another
school shooting tragedy, high school senior Karl Pierson enters
Arapohoe High School (Centennial, Colorado) on December 13 armed with a
shotgun, machete, and Molotov Cocktails. His goal apparently was to take revenge
on the school librarian and debate coach who had disciplined him earlier in the
school year. Instead, before taking his own life, he critically wounds a female classmate.
She dies eight days later.

Please consider this timeline to be a work in progress.
If you
see an error or have a suggestion for an important event that should be
added, send it to me at
esass@csbsju.edu.I will review your idea, and
if I think it has merit, I will add it to the timeline.